1963 VS. 2002 - Little has changed since the creation of Mademoiselle Magazine in the mid 1930's. Even though society has developed into a consumer driven enterprise, the magazine has been and still is edited to attract women ages eighteen to thirty-four
Dana Kornblum
Cultural Studies
September 23, 2002
1963 VS. 2002
Little has changed since the creation of Mademoiselle Magazine in the mid 1930’s. Even though society has developed into a consumer driven enterprise, the magazine has been and still is edited to attract women ages eighteen to thirty-four. In the September 1963 issue of Mademoiselle, the magazine’s focus lay primarily in fashion, beauty and careers as editors attempted to relate to the women of the decade. These women were dedicated to their beliefs in equality as they tried to prove themselves as a dominant sex. As time progressed, columns did not change. Articles on topics such as career, fashion, beauty, and health now inundate the pages of new magazines, such as in Glamour (Mademoiselle has recently been taken out of circulation, but Glamour and Mademoiselle have merged as one), still hoping to manipulate the population and set the trends for the near future. What has changed however is the aesthetic composition of the magazine, less inhibited articles pertaining to the opposite sex, and the addition of numerous advertisements and pictures of celebrities to which recent culture has become obsessed.
The table of contents in the 1963 September issue of Mademoiselle and the 2002 October issue of Glamour magazine hold such apparent similarities it is almost impossible to determine which magazine is from the past. Starting with the cover headlines, each magazine features advice in both fashion and beauty and has many separate articles pertaining to each of these subjects. The interest in these subjects has stayed relatively the same over the past four decades. Still, fashionable styles are the means to which these articles are written and recent trends are what keep these magazines contemporary. Since both of the magazines are autumn issues, as opposed to a fall issue and a spring one, they hold many of the same sub articles. For example, Mademoiselle 1963 featured an article entitled “It Takes Braggadocio…: Coats” and Glamour 2002 contains an article entitled “Your Next Coat.” Though the titles have become more straightforward in recent time, both magazines are clearly selling the trends of the day.
